- Evangelism
Churches circle Christmas and Easter as the two biggest weekends on their calendar every year.
Because of the pandemic, in 2020, only about 7% of U.S. churches could meet in person on Easter.
By the second Easter of the pandemic, in-person church attendance had risen but wasn’t back to normal levels. According to Pew Research, about 39% of Christians said they planned to go in person this year, compared to the 62% who typically do.
Whether they met in person, online or both, inside or outside, Converge churches across the country did not waste the opportunity to reach people for Jesus this Easter.
Here are the celebration reports we have received:
Discovery City Church, Canal Winchester, Ohio
What an awesome Easter! We had 600 people out for our Easter EGG-Splosion and then a great group for Sunday with two people accepting Christ and two rededicating their lives. God’s awesome!
Eagle Brook Church, multiple locations, Minnesota
Eagle Brook, one church with 10 locations, held 67 Easter services. Here are the highlights:
- 28,633 people attended the in-person services
- Tens of thousands watched the online services
- 1418 people decided to follow Jesus
- 2229 people attended the launch of Eagle Brook’s Ham Lake Campus in person
Glory Church, Kansas City, Missouri
Pastor Greg McKinney said, “Our Easter Service was an inner-city tent service in one of our main parks. After having to leave our portable location indefinitely while they became a vaccine clinic, we pivoted and decided to do Easter outside with a tent service and an egg hunt. We had a great response from both our people and the community. We saw 11 salvations, 11 baptisms and 30 new families.”
Iglesia Calvario (Calvary Church’s Latino ministries), Turlock, California
Pastor Jose Magana and his wife, Martha, had a great time celebrating Easter and their ministry’s relaunch. Attendance was excellent, and they were thankful for the opportunity to worship and pray together as the body of Christ. Pastor Magana thanked everyone for their prayers and support.
New Hope Church, Wooster, Ohio
- 350 in-person attenders
- Seven people come to know Jesus
- Five people get baptized
- And, many decisions made to recommit their lives to Jesus, sign up for a small group or growth class, or get baptized in the future
Redemption Hill Community Church, Madera, California
Easter morning was quite interesting for pastor Kevin Llanos and his wife, Brooke. They met at Hillside Elementary School’s amphitheater. They enjoyed beautiful weather and had about a dozen people, plus kids, help with setup, spaced out for COVID. They also had the opportunity to pray as a launch team before people arrived. There were children’s bulletins and crayons available for kids. They had 114 in attendance. The message was about Jesus’ resurrection, and Brooke led worship time. They had lots of positive feedback at the end of the service.
Renovation Church, Gallatin, Tennessee
Our first in-person Easter was a weekend-long celebration. We:
- Had nearly 2000 people from our community show up to the helicopter egg drop
- Saw over 400 people show up for our three in-person services
- Celebrated 16 decisions to follow Jesus
- Had seats packed out with first-time guests
Rise Church, Visalia, California
It was an amazing Easter Sunday with hundreds of people worshiping and celebrating Jesus’ resurrection across three services. Our RiseKids team provided an incredible outdoor walkthrough of the Easter story, followed by an egg hunt. And to top it all off, nine people committed their lives to Jesus, and five decided to follow him in baptism!
Rock Point Church, Queen Creek, Arizona
On April 3 and 4, Rock Point Church celebrated the resurrection hope we have in Jesus and welcomed 6402 people who visited our new campus for Easter services. We love being able to share the Easter story with those who are lost, and one way we accomplish this is through outreach opportunities. On Saturday, we hosted our annual helicopter egg drop, where we dropped 14,000 eggs, and thousands from our community attended. It was a fantastic time for families to visit our campus, enjoy Easter festivities and attend Easter services, possibly for the first time.
We are so excited to be celebrating 58 new families to Rock Point totaling 168 individuals with 513 guests who participated online! Currently, we have 78 people who have signed up for baptism weekend, and hundreds said “yes” to Jesus for the first time!
Rock Point Church has seen amazing growth in many ministries and welcomed 1282 individuals and 563 new families in the past year. Despite any challenges we may face, we know that God is still working in and through our lives and circumstances as we point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus.
Sun Valley Community Church, multiple campuses, Arizona
This past weekend we were so excited to host Easter at all of our campuses, online and outdoors at a brand new campus soon to open. It was an incredible experience for all who came, and it was so amazing to see individuals return to church that hadn’t since March of last year. We are so grateful to all who gave and served to make Easter happen.
Our experience included original music written by our music team, fun and engaging kids experience with 1800 Peeps given away, photo booths, smiling faces and so much more. These special moments throughout the entire weekend made this an Easter to remember.
As we celebrated Jesus turning our hopeless end into an endless hope, we hosted more than 13,000 people in person and online, saw 288 say ‘yes’ to following Jesus and welcomed 262 first-time guests. We also received a generosity offering, which we will give 100% of to one of our global partners, Harvest India. To date, we have seen over $215,000 given through the generosity of those who joined us for Easter.
The River Church, Tacoma, Washington
This has been a crazy year, so why wouldn’t we do something a little different and get the church out of the building and into the great outdoors for Easter?
A family from our church opened up their property for us to set up a big tent and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with anyone who wanted to come. One hundred thirty people attended our service, and four people gave their lives to Jesus! It was an amazing morning! And to top it all off, we had 1500 Easter eggs for the 40-plus kids in attendance to do an Easter egg hunt.
After this last year of COVID craziness, it was refreshing and encouraging to watch God work through his people. Would you pray for those who responded to the good news as they learn what it means to surrender to a life of following Jesus? Thank you!
The Ship Church, Antioch, California
On Easter, pastor Eugene Jackson and his wife, Cassandra, celebrated The Ship Church’s relaunch. They had 120 people worship onsite and 118 people watch online.
Sadly, the church had to turn people away because the sanctuary reached capacity. According to the county COVID guidelines, houses of worship are only allowed to be at 25% capacity.
The children witnessed a powerful Easter play and received Easter bags after the service. Eight people filled out decision cards.
Pastor Eugene said, “The Lord answered our prayers and blessed the relaunch service to be awesome and anointed.”
Valley Baptist Community Church, Avon, Connecticut
What an amazing Easter weekend we experienced. We worshipped at two Good Friday services, four Easter services, watched five people get baptized and welcomed several guests and longtime attendees who worshiped in person for the first time since the pandemic began. Five of the six services were livestreamed.
Woodridge Church, Medina, Minnesota
Woodridge had six Easter services. We tried our first Saturday night Easter service with more than 500 people in attendance. Eighty-three people texted that they trusted in Jesus, and we are following up with them.
There’s still time to add your church’s Easter story. Tell us your story so that we can celebrate with you and share the good news.
